News
Department of Packaging and Graphic Media Science

Analytical thinking, complex problem solving, creativity, resiliency, and flexibility are among the top skills needed for emerging careers by 2025. Anticipating these rapid changes in the workplace—further accelerated by lessons learned from the COVID-19 pandemic—RIT is seizing on the opportunity to guide students to “new economy majors” that are multi­disciplinary, transformative, and future-focused.

Students on co-op are picking up more than occupational and professional skills. As the pandemic unfolded last spring and summer, they saw firsthand how companies manage even in the midst of a crisis.

The RIT student-designers on Team Frears placed second in the 2020 Paperboard Packaging Student Design Challenge for their packaging designs of a toolkit for educators to be distributed by the national program Trees into Cartons, Cartons into Trees, (TICCIT).

Achieving accurate and precise color reproduction for traditional offset and modern digital print production is in the standards. In Printing-Process Control and Standardization, Robert Chung offers strategies to improve print quality, consistency, and cost savings in the print and communication industries.

Barbara Birkett and Gregory D’Amico were appointed to two of the Department of Graphic Media Science and Technology’s prestigious endowed professorships this fall. Birkett assumes the role of the Paul and Louise Miller Endowed Professorship. D’Amico will serve as the Gravure Endowed Professor.

With the School of Media Science’s recent move to the College of Engineering Technology (CET), the faculty is beginning to incorporate more science into their classes. Robert Eller, the Gravure Research Professor, is among the faculty members leading the charge in this area. One example is the introduction of Fluid Dynamics in the inkjet printing lab of his Digital Print Processes course.

CNBC talks to Carlos Diaz-Acosta, associate professor of packaging science, about consumer behavior and food-waste education.

Intersections: The RIT Podcast, Ep. 37: Printing, a storied industry, continues to see an evolution. RIT alumnus Henry Freedman and Professors Robert Eller and Bruce Myers discuss the strength of the industry, the rise of inkjet printing and the role RIT plays in developing professionals who can take the printing industry to the next level.

A chance meeting near 10 p.m. in one of the world’s busiest airports, Chicago’s O’Hare, provided a wonderful opportunity to reconnect with a former student, Jayadev Alapati, a graduate of the New Media Publishing program. Jay graciously accepted the request to share some school memories and his career path experience since graduating in 2011.

A federal grant matched by New York state and RIT is enabling university researchers to study a competitive solution to polyethylene mulch and identify a more sustainable alternative to conventionally used plastics in farming.

When new students come to RIT, they join the ever-growing Tiger family. For John B. Lawrence and his younger brother, Jared Lawrence, the Tiger family is more than just a proximal community; it’s also based on actual bloodlines.

Ben Camp '13 BS, '18 MS (Media Arts and Technology) is a graphic designer at Illuminate, a clinical sales training and development agency.